Say Something
by astarte-lydianna
Summary: Darcy and Bruce wake up in bed together after Tony and Pepper's wedding. A drunken wedding gets swept into a media love story causing the pair to play along. When spending that much time close together it's fairly obvious they're going to get attached and things just get more complicated from there.
1. Chapter 1

Bright. It was really, really bright. It was the first thing that she registered; before she even opened her eyes. Sure enough; as she cautiously winced them open the room was bright. The walls and sheets were white and the amount of sun hitting the wall told her that the curtains weren't drawn.

It wouldn't be the first time Darcy had woken up in an unfamiliar room and she had to admit this was one of the nicest. It smelt nice and fresh and clean at least. If she had to guess she would say it was a hotel room but it certainly wasn't the hotel room she had been staying in. She cringed as she heard a noise from next to her. Great... She dreaded the awkwardness that would undoubtedly be having to get dressed and escape the unknown room. She tried to recall something useful from the night before but she certainly didn't remember kissing anyone or going to a hotel with anyone. Taking a deep breath she shifted to try and take a peek at her bed partner.

"Please at least be hot..." She breathed to herself. Her breath got stuck in her throat as she took in the sleeping form next to her; she ended up choking on air as she sucked in another breath.

'Way to go, lets make loads of noise and wake up the sleeping scientist to make this even more awkward.' She mentally chastised herself. Her stomach protested violently to the movement her coughing fit had caused and knowing what would follow; she ignored the stabbing pain in her head and made a dash to what she presumed was the bathroom.

"Hello?" A familiar voice called from the other room, as she began to throw up in the toilet. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah...I'm alright." Darcy called back once she had caught her breath. She quickly wiped her mouth and flushed the evidence away, before diving for the toothbrushes and travel sized toothpaste at the sink. Grateful to the heavens that the hotel provided such things. As she scrubbed her teeth she took in her surroundings a bit more. The bathroom was rather large for a what had to be a hotel room, it was all shiny black and white tile. Definitely a fancier hotel than she had booked. There was a huge tub which might even me a jacuzzi and a large shower; not to mention all the little bottles of lotions and soaps along the mirror. A flash caught her eye and she froze, staring at her reflection in horror.

In that moment she didn't even notice that she now had toothpaste dribbling from her mouth and down her chin, all she saw was the pair of glittering rings on her finger.

"Shit!" She hissed, dropping the toothbrush and quickly spitting the toothpaste in the sink. "Oh no...no way!"

Darcy tried to think backwards, what was the last thing she remembered? Tony and Pepper; they got married in Vegas...he had wanted to make it official before she had a chance to back out. It had been huge for a Vegas wedding. They did lots of drinking afterwards and the last thing she remembered was laughing with Jane about something.

"Do you remember what happened?" Darcy spun around to find Dr Bruce Banner stood sheepishly in the bathroom doorway in a pair of black dress pants and an open white shirt. "Like...how we got here?"

"I think we have bigger problems than how we got here." She blurted out, glancing down at the robe which she had grabbed on her dash to the bathroom to hide her nakedness.

"Nothing happened." He said quickly.

"You remember?" She asked, her eyes widening.

"Well, no." He admitted. "But I can't...the other guy gets triggered by adrenaline, any kind of adrenaline. I can't...um..."

"Ouch, dude that sucks." She cringed.

"Yeah anyway, so there's no damage to anything, nothing torn, broken or even knocked over." He explained. "There's just no way the other guy could've made an appearance in this room without there being some sign of it. So we didn't..." He trailed off and gestured behind him to the bed.

Looking at him so disheveled, his shirt open allowing her eyes to follow the mass of dark hair down towards his pants, Darcy honestly couldn't say whether that was a good thing or not. Up until now he had been this sweet, dorky scientist that she occasionally took tea and snacks to. She was technically Jane's assistant but since the other lab assistants were all into actual science; she soon realised that they deemed it below them to fetch tea and coffee and started occasionally adding Bruce and Tony into her snack runs. Bruce was always shy and polite, he occasionally showed his sense of humour, when she managed to draw conversation out of him and he was relatively good looking for someone at least ten years older than her. Now...relatively good looking was a huge understatement. If he hadn't just told her in a roundabout way that he couldn't have sex without becoming the Hulk, she would probably be pushing him straight back towards that bed right now.

"You've got toothpaste..." He pointed to her face and she realised that she hadn't finished wiping the toothpaste from her lips. Well...that was embarrassing. There he was looking all sleepy and hot and there she was having thrown up then leaving toothpaste all around her mouth.

"Sorry. I was distracted by the bling now on my finger." She told him, waving her left hand in front of his face while using her right hand to wipe her mouth.

"You're married?" He blinked in surprise.

"I might be now." She retorted. "I don't remember."

"As in...you and...me?" He gulped. "I don't...surely we wouldn't have."

"Wait a minute, I thought you didn't drink!" Darcy spoke up suddenly.

"I didn't. I only started having the occasional drink when I moved into the tower. I would only drink in the green room to start with until I worked out how much I could have without impairing my judgement." He frowned. "I only had two drinks. I shouldn't have been drunk."

"Depends on the drink." She snorted. "OK, I vote we find out A: If we really did get married last night and B: If not you, did I marry someone else last night and C: Undo it."

"Good plan, we can get right on that when the world stops spinning." He winced.

"You're standing and talking and haven't thrown up, you're doing better than me." She shrugged, pulling herself together and heading back towards the bedroom. "Also...before I leave this room I am definitely taking advantage of that huge and lovely looking shower."

"As much as I hate to say it, we need to get hold of Tony or Pepper. This has potential news scandal written all over it and Pepper doesn't jump through legal hoops, she flies through them." He said. "Tony is going to have a field day."

Two hours later Darcy answered the door to an immaculately dressed Pepper Potts, or rather Stark.

"Oh my God, clothes! You are a Goddess!" Darcy exclaimed gratefully, taking the offered bags of clothing. Unfortunately her dress from the previous night appeared to have had drink spilt on it.

"I'm so sorry about this, you should be enjoying a honeymoon." Bruce spoke, as he stood to greet her.

"Don't worry, our flight doesn't leave until tonight." She waved him off. "When you two went off with Jane and Thor, we never imagined this would happen."

"I don't remember that, I don't remember anything." Darcy sighed. "Actually that's a lie, I remember seeing Thor doing karaoke at some point but...it was just something that I remembered about twenty minutes ago."

"That didn't happen before you left us." Pepper nodded. "So the rest or most of it will probably come back in pieces. I've left a message for Jane to contact you when she wakes up, hopefully she can fill in the blanks. Do you have the certificate?"

Bruce handed her a folded up piece of paper and then shoved his hands awkwardly into his pockets. He had found it on the floor his side of the bed when they had looked for a leaflet or room service menu to find out the hotel name.

"Alright, this is a start. It looks pretty real but I won't know until I check with the chapel or on the system. It may not have been processed yet, sometimes it takes a few days." She explained, looking over the paper. "Once it has been processed, we can look into the annulment process if that's what you want. It shouldn't take long to all be sorted, the main concern is keeping it from the press."

"I can't believe Jane would let me do this." Darcy huffed, then her eyes narrowed in realisation and anger. "Hey Bruce, you certain about those two drinks?"

"Er...yes, I only had two drinks before my memory is pretty much gone, why?" He frowned.

"Do you happen to remember who gave you those drinks?" She asked.

"Thor and Tony, why?" He replied automatically.

"Not for mortal men and aged for a thousand years." She muttered. "I think Tony and Thor deliberately got the Hulk drunk."

"I'd like to think Tony wouldn't be that stupid but...I've learned to never discount anything where he is concerned." Pepper commented.

"But Thor wouldn't...he wouldn't deliberately do something that reckless." Bruce frowned.

"But if Tony convinced him that like Steve the Hulk can't get drunk?" Darcy asked. "Let's face it you're in considerably better shape than me. I've thrown up twice and feel like if I stand up for more than two minutes I'm going to pass out. You felt pretty rough when you first woke up but then bam you were fine."

"That's true, I guess it could affect me differently." He conceded. A few seconds later a sinking feeling made itself known in his insides. "Oh God, I could have killed half of Vegas last night and have no idea."

"But you didn't." Pepper assured him. "I haven't checked up on all the news yet but I skimmed and if the Hulk had made an appearance, then it would have been on nearly every station."

"I need a shower." Darcy groaned, standing from the bed again. "Thank you for the clothes."

"No problem." Pepper assured her. "I'll leave you two to get freshened up and dressed. Try to stay here for now, I'm going to look into this and check up on the news some more and then come and fill you in on what I've found."

They both repeated their thanks as the woman left the room, leaving them once again alone in their hotel room.

"If you hear a thud in a minute, I've passed out in the shower and need dragging out of it before you become a widower on your first day as a married man." She told Bruce heading to the bathroom.

Bruce was relieved that Dr Foster's young assistant didn't fall or pass out in the shower. She did however make such loud sighs and moans of contentment, that he found himself rather uncomfortable being in the next room. He was pretty sure she wasn't doing what it sounded like but the occasional groan she let out sounded enough like it to be embarrassing. When she returned to the main room in a large white towel a short time later, he found himself unable to look at her.

Darcy flopped herself back on the bed in her towel with a sigh.

"That shower is amazing. I want to marry that shower. Can Tony build a shower like that into my room of the tower?" She babbled. She stopped talking and looked up at him, noticing that he was just looking at her strangely. "Go, shower. Then you will know exactly what I mean."


	2. Chapter 2

They were married. It was real. Tony had convinced Thor that the Hulk could take the nectar of the Gods and the small sips that had been added to Bruce's drinks had caused him to be totally and utterly drunk beyond reason. Darcy had had plenty of her own drink and according to Jane she had also had a taste of not only Bruce's but also Thor's and Jane's drinks in turn, before declaring them all disgusting and sticking to her beer.

Two days later, most of the events of that night had come together in her head.

Apparently Darcy had taken it upon herself to make sure that Dr Bruce Banner wasn't left in a corner alone, she had pretty much dragged him into the festivities, which was how they had ended up together most of the night. Thor had wanted to see the sights of Las Vegas and so they had all left the wedding reception to explore the local sights. Thor was not good at gambling but thanks to their giant science brains Bruce and Jane were.

Thor had loved the show girls and alcohol and he had attempted karaoke. He had sung loudly, singing Asgardian words in places where he didn't know the correct ones. Then a bachelor party had appeared in the same bar and hit on Darcy and Jane. Thor had made some very loud threats, before carrying Jane off over his shoulder; leaving Bruce and Darcy. Bruce being the person he was, had assured her that she could dance with the young man flirting with her and he would wait to escort her safely back to the hotel. At which point Darcy had swung herself onto Bruce's lap; straddling him and wrapping her arms around his neck, before declaring loudly that she already had all the man she needed. The younger men left and she and Bruce finished all the drinks that were left on the table and that's when her memory remained fuzzy.

She vaguely remembered dragging some strangers with them to a chapel. She remembers dragging Bruce's face down to kiss her at the end of their ceremony. In fact she remembers a lot of kissing. So much kissing that now she found it hard to speak to him and look at him without wanting to see what that kissing was like when she wasn't drunk.

The whole gang had returned to Stark tower yesterday, the plan had been for them to begin the annulment process straight away. Then social media hit.  
They hadn't made the news until this morning. It had taken that long for a few pictures people had taken and posted on their facebook, twitter and instagram accounts to circulate, gain attention and hit the internet gossip pages, before finally making the actual news.

There were pictures of Thor marching down the Las Vegas strip with Jane in his arms bridal style. The caption proclaimed that they were in a romantic mood following the wedding of friends Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. The wedding of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts should have been front page and for two days it was. Then the front page was a picture of her and Bruce sharing a rather enthusiastic kiss outside a chapel with the title 'Second Avenger Wedding'.

Now that it was out in the press they couldn't decide what to do. Did they go ahead and annul the marriage and admit to the Vegas mistake or did they stay married and keep quiet then divorce or annul super quietly further down the line.

It was a tough call. One which she and Pepper had discussed at length over the phone this morning, before Darcy decided to raise her concerns with Bruce.

"Knock, knock. I come bearing tea and brownies." She announced, as she entered his lab as she usually did.

"Oh uh...thanks." He said offering her a small smile. "Did someone rat me out?"

"For what?" She frowned. Then she looked closer at his appearance and narrowed her eyes at him in his rumpled clothes, his curls practically defying gravity from him repeatedly running his hands into them. "You've been in here all night haven't you?"

"I walked right into that." He sighed, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "I got carried away looking into the differences in how my metabolism and Steve's work."

"Then I'm guessing you haven't seen the news." She said biting her lip.

"News? What news?" He blinked in confusion.

"We're the news." She told him. "Jarvis? Could you bring up today's headlines please?"

"Of course Mrs Banner." The AI spoke.

"How many times do I have to ask for you to call me Darcy? Not Miss Lewis, not Miss or Ma'am or Mrs anything, just Darcy." She huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. "I swear Tony literally programmed you to call me Mrs Banner to watch Bruce and I squirm."

"My apologies." The British voice intoned. "Loading today's headlines."

"Oh." Was all Bruce said, as he took in the images of them displayed in front of him.

"Yeah...apparently the world is all happy for the Avengers all getting their love on." Darcy sighed. "Iron Man getting married, Thor sweeping his girl off her feet and now...you getting married. They're all over Tony Stark finally settling down and showing his sentimental side. The feminists are all happy that Pepper Potts is like some amazing playboy tamer and...a lot of people seem to be really positive about this." She pointed to the screen for emphasis.

"Us?" He asked in surprise.

"From a PR perspective...it humanises the Hulk." She explained. "He's always been the biggest concern publicly and you don't really get into the public eye much. To the public, this is a slightly drunk, loved up version of you and that's relatable."

"Watch out, your political science is showing." He teased.

"If it helps us in this situation then so be it." She shrugged. "This is the most positive the public have been about the Hulk so far. Getting an annulment and announcing it all as a mistake...that'd be a mistake."

"You're suggesting we stay married?" He raised his eyebrows.

"For now, yeah. No one needs to know that we have different beds on completely separate floors and that I usually only see you when I come to make sure you eat. If we just pretty much forget it ever happened, with the exception of maybe one or two events where being together would be expected; the media will die down. Then eventually we just slip the paperwork through to end it and by the time the press is wondering where the Mrs is, we can just say things didn't work out." She explained.

"And when you're seen out with a boyfriend? What then?" He asked evenly, shifting to lean against the worktop to look at her properly and avoid looking at the picture of them on the screen at the same time.

"Pfft, I can go a while without dating if it means the Big Guy gets some good press. It's not like I've been getting any action recently anyway." She replied. "Maybe I'll take up yoga." He chuckled at her joke and nodded briefly.

"OK, so we just...stay married." He agreed quietly.

"Right." She nodded. "So...brownies, eat them and if you aren't out of this lab by five this afternoon Jarvis is going to tell me, aren't you Jarvis?"

"Of course, Mrs Banner." He replied. Darcy flung her arms up in the air in frustration.

"Come on Jarvis, not cool! Tony really did program you not to use first names didn't he?" She grumbled.

"I do have protocols on what is considered appropriate forms of address, yes." He replied.

"Great, just great." She muttered, before shifting her gaze to the uncomfortable looking scientist next to her. "No offense, it's not you...it's just that Mrs makes me feel like I should be all grown up and sensible and you know...Vegas wedding. Yeah no sensible grown up here."

"Don't you look after pretty much everyone else?" He asked her.

"Making sure that you guys eat at least once a day and sleep at least once every two days doesn't really count as looking after." She waved him off and headed toward the door.

He couldn't help but think of the other things she did, like movie nights with Steve to help bring him up to date and make him feel more like he was part of the current world. Deliberately making contact with him to show him that she wasn't afraid of him; especially when other lab assistants were around that tended to keep their distance. She had a huge heart and seemed to always have time to help someone, especially those she considered her scientists. His lips quirked at the thought of Darcy marching around the tower all day being called Mrs Banner. He couldn't help but like the way it sounded, at least a little bit.

Bruce found himself finishing early that day and asking Jarvis where Darcy was.

"Mrs Banner is currently fetching sustenance for Dr Foster from the sixth floor."

"Right, uh is she going to be taking that to Dr Foster's lab?" He asked.

"I believe that is her intention."

"Thanks Jarvis."

Sure enough, by the time Bruce cleared his work station and made his way to Dr Foster's lab, Darcy had returned with a tray of food.

"Oh, hey," she greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you about a few things if you...had a minute?" He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Oh sure, Jane's going to be taking a break to eat this aren't you Jane?" Darcy called over to her boss. "Jane!"

"Oh, yes, sorry." Dr Foster's head snapped up. "Oh, hi Bruce."

"Hi." He nodded.

"I'm going with him, can you be trusted for like an hour?" Darcy asked. The astrophysicist waved her off. "Cool, right, let's go."

"Uh...right..." He nodded, letting the whirlwind that was Darcy usher him out of the lab and to the elevator.

"So you wanted to say something?" She prompted when they got in the elevator.

"I just wanted to find out what the story was exactly. I mean, did you warn your family? Obviously the team know that this isn't real but what about other people in the tower?"

"Bruce, we have a marriage certificate, we're married." She told him. "I hate to point out the obvious but in the eyes of the law that is real."

"Not what I meant." He deadpanned.

"I know." She smirked, leading the way to the coffee station on the residential floor. "OK, here's the deal. My mum and I aren't close so I haven't told her anything, I'll probably get that delightful phone call at some point but I will just be feeding her the same line I'll be feeding everyone else. Yes I got married and no my love life isn't her business."

"I don't think no comment is going to work with the press indefinitely."

"No, probably not but this doesn't have to turn into a complicated elaborate story." She explained, pouring herself a coffee. "We keep it simple. The only people that don't know that this is the real deal are Jane and Thor, Pepper and Tony and possible Steve and Natasha. Anyone else we just say that yes the wedding was impulsive but that we are happy. No one expects you to be sticking your tongue down my throat at work Bruce, what does or doesn't happen behind closed doors is no one else's business. We know enough about one another to answer a few vague questions. There doesn't need to be a story."

Bruce watched Darcy reel off her reasoning, standing there in her pencil skirt, red sweater and high heels and couldn't help but think how maybe Darcy was wasted as a lab assistant. She was fantastic at her job but watching her now it was like watching a younger Pepper Potts. It was a side of Darcy he hadn't often seen, she was so often laid back and fun loving that it really made an impact to see her so confident and professional.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked suspiciously.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're scarily good at this?" He asked her.

"Not just a hat rack my friend." She smirked, gesturing at her head. "So, dinner?"

"Dinner?" He blinked in surprise.

"Yup, you and I can go to the Thai place two blocks over and get take out. You can go back to yours after if you like, once we're back on the residential floors no one will know we didn't get and take out and snuggle up on the couch for a romantic night in but us." She told him, threading her arm through his and sipping her coffee as she led him back towards the elevator. He followed her led obediently with a look of bemusement on his face.


	3. Chapter 3

If he was completely honest, Bruce would have to say that he never paid much attention to Jane foster or her assistant until he somehow married Darcy. He knew who they were of course, he had even spoken to them on occasion...he just didn't socialise in general so not getting to know the women he didn't work with that often wasn't surprising. He was polite of course, considering the younger woman occasionally came and brought him and Tony food or tea, she had even brought him spare clothes after a code green. Darcy was a perfectly nice and vibrant young woman, he just hadn't known her that well...until he got drunk and married her.

As it turned out, being married to Darcy was remarkably easy. Just as she had predicted, no one really had expectations for them to be attached at the hip, so their lives carried on for the most part as normal. She saw him more often though, made a point to check on him every day, he supposed to keep up appearances. Still, it was nice to have someone pleased to see him every day regardless of the reason. She even ate lunch in his office with him a few times, that sparked some gossip in the tower about what the two of them got up to in a locked office followed by a magazine article claiming that despite the rushed wedding, they were still enjoying the honeymoon phase.

They had only had one event to attend together, a lecture that Bruce was speaking at that Darcy had attended with him as the dutiful wife. He had been surprised at how easy it had been. All he had to do was act exactly as he normally did but with Darcy clinging to his arm. He thought that perhaps she did the hard work, interjecting into the occasional conversation with some kind of social knowledge he seemed to be lacking. In fact, if it weren't for his alter ego he would consider asking his wife on a date, despite the age gap. She was certainly smart and pleasant to be around and anyone could tell you that she was beautiful and technically she was his wife. All excellent points. The problem was that he did have an alter ego. He did have a constant thrum of anger in his head and the looming threat of hurting anyone and everyone that got in his way. Then of course there was the fact that he couldn't actually be a husband to her in the true sense of the word. Still, it was nice to at least have someone he could consider a friend. Someone to brighten his days just a little bit even if it was temporary.

"Hey Doc!" Her familiar greeting rang out from the hall behind him. "You know how in vows there's that whole for better for worse thing? Well, I'm going to need your help with some of that worse."

"Explain." He sighed, punching his nose in confusion.

"So...I may or may not have been keeping a secret resident in the tower for about two months but now Tony will be coming back here tomorrow and I can't find him and I don't want Tony to be super mad." She rambled, her hands waving around emphatically.

"Wait," he said, holding a hand up for her to stop talking and then waving his finger. "Back up, you've what?"

"My dog has escaped from my room." She explained.

"You have a dog."

"Haha what's mine is yours Bruce, we have a dog." She grinned. "Tony said no pets in the tower but he was homeless and hungry and I did take him to a vet but he had no chip and no one came to claim him."

"So you brought home a stray dog?" He asked his lips quirking in amusement.

"Well...yes." She admitted. "But in my defence Jane got to keep Thor."

"Thor isn't a dog." Bruce chuckled.

"But he was a stray that she brought home." She pointed out. "Help me please!"

"Alright," he agreed. Following her towards her room. "Just curious but how exactly were you taking him for a walk?"

"Easy I check with Jarvis for times when Tony is sleeping. He's not even living here all the time as he lives in Malibu a lot. It was all going perfectly until K-9 escaped." She explained.

"You named him canine?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Not canine as in dog. K-9 as in the robot dog." She corrected him.

"You named your dog from Doctor Who?" He asked in surprise.

"Perfectly valid name choice. I used to have a cat called Spok growing up but my mum said she ran away. Turned out ran away meant ran over." He couldn't help but be amused by her blunt humour and animated commentary.

"You're-"

"Kind of a dork. I know." She cut him off, with a roll of her eyes. She held out her phone to show him a picture of a small brown dog. "I'm going to do one last check in my room for him before going that way." She pointed to the left of her door. "If you could start looking in the other direction and shout if you find him I will owe you big time."

Darcy practically flew around the corner and into the kitchen. She let out a huge sigh of relief when sure enough, she spotted Bruce at the counter leaning down to pass the dog the crust of his sandwich.

"Jarvis told me you found him." She beamed. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She whisked the dog up into her arms and tapped him on the nose with her finger. "K-9 you know you can only come out when you're with me."

"He was probably bored." Bruce told her. "Dogs don't really like being kept indoors all the time."

"I know that and I do take him out. Besides it's better than him being abandoned behind a dumpster with no home at all." She countered defensively.

"I know that, I'm just saying that you already have a lot of responsibility on your plate."

"Well it looks like he likes you so it looks like you've been enlisted to help me doesn't it?" She grinned almost evilly. "Thanks Bruce, it's so nice of you to offer to help me with K-9 when my responsibilities get too much." She offered him a huge smile and bent down to kiss him on the cheek before disappearing back the way she had come, this time with her dog in her arms.

"I should've seen that one coming." He sighed to himself shaking his head.

Tony's return to the tower was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that Pepper had also returned to the tower and was working her magic on the media storm which was the Avenger's personal lives. The curse was...well...Tony Stark.

The near constant stream of sly comments and jabs about his new marital status was enough to drive Bruce insane. It didn't seem to bother Darcy too much, she just snarked back at him and at first Bruce had been fine, letting the comments roll off his back and ignoring the billionaire. The problem was that this time ignoring him didn't make him stop. Nothing seemed to make him stop. Every second that Tony got called away from the research and development floors to attend a meeting was bliss as far as Bruce was concerned.

That afternoon he was enjoying the silence after Tony had gone out with Pepper to attend some charity gala when Darcy found him.

"Cupcake?" She asked, holding out a plate full of cakes.

"What's the occasion?"

"I actually got a proper oven for my room. So I baked." She grinned.

"You don't use the communal kitchen?" He asked. "I'm sure I've seen you in there."

"Yeah sometimes I do, just not every day." She replied, hopping up onto the worktop and sitting there, swinging her legs easily. "If I can my own oven in my own room, I don't have to where pants to my breakfast."

"A good point." He chuckled, taking a bite of one of the cupcakes.

"OK, so important question," she announced after few minutes of silence. "You said you've watched Dr Who, right? So who's your favourite doctor?" When he simply opened his desk draw and held up a packet of jelly babies she delighted laugh erupted from her. She leant over and took one from the offered packet.

"Best response to that question ever!" She beamed. "Honestly, almost everyone's favourite is four...or ten but I usually just get a straight answer not a reference. I think I'm a little bit in love with you right now."

"Uh...that easy huh?" He cringed. "That sounded bad."

"Yeah but considering your usual lack of social skills I'll let you off." She chuckled.

"You never said who your favourite was." He said.

"Oh...well older ones then four, five being a close second but newer probably nine." She replied. "Oh...but eight was good in the movie, there was something sexy about Paul McGann..."

"Not ten?"

"I liked ten, he was a great doctor but...I just liked nine better. Eleven wasn't as good...not in my opinion but twelve seems good but I haven't got far into it so it's too early to say." She explained.

"I wouldn't have expected you to be a Doctor Who fan if I hadn't met your dog."

"Girls can't like doctor who? Urm...hello have you not seen David Tennant's fangirls?"

"No I didn't mean girls couldn't...I mean you just seem so...normal?" He winced. "I'm going to stop talking now."

"If you think anyone in this building is normal you've not been looking close enough." She grinned. "Doctor Who is just the tip of the iceburg. You haven't seen my manga collection."

"Really?" He laughed.

"Yup." She nodded. "And the funny thing is dorky is a thing now. Like at school I would have never admitted to watching Star Trek or playing World of Warcraft but now it's a big thing. Geek is cool."

"Yeah when I was in school I pretty much got the crap beat out of me for having comic books and playing chess." He agreed.

"Aw you played chess? You dork." She teased ruffling his hair. "I could never get the hang of the whole thinking ahead thing and it's totally boring. Give me video games with swords and guns any day."

"When I was a kid Mario was just invented." He deadpanned.

"Retro is cool too by the way." She piped up, seeming unphased by his comment. "I have a SNES in my apartment that I still play. Sometimes the oldies are the best."

"I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or not." He murmured.

"Totally is. What time do you finish? Wanna go play Mario?" She asked.

"I pretty much choose my own hours, as you may have noticed."

"That's awesome. I finish in an hour, don't go anywhere, I'm coming back for you later." She told him making her way back towards the door.

"Once she was gone Bruce found himself a bit bewildered.

"Jarvis, what just happened?"

"It would appear that you and Mrs Banner are going to play Mario." The AI replied.

"Is that a date?"

"I'm afraid I am unable to discern that without further information."

"Yeah, me neither." He agreed.


	4. Chapter 4

Bruce found himself still unable to determine the situation when Darcy came back an hour later and announced that they should go and get some dinner to take back to hers. She just cheerily tugged him along with her out of the building and to the nearest Chinese. They caught the attention of a few locals that recognized them but fortunately few enough that they could say their hellos and goodbyes politely without causing a fuss or a media circus.

"Oh let them take a picture." Darcy said, tucking her arm tightly through his and snuggling up to his side. They posed for the picture and then Darcy took one with the two young women next to Bruce as well, while he stood looking awkward and bashful. "Smile honey, you're famous, deal with it."

"Bet you didn't realise you'd married such a high profile celebrity." He chuckled, as they entered the Chinese and placed their order.

"How do you know that wasn't my plan all along?" She smirked. "Maybe I always planned to get close to you and have my wicked way with you."

"Darcy." He rolled his eyes.

"What?" She looked innocent. "OK, obviously it wasn't my plan but still, I could do a lot worse than you believe me." She tucked herself under his arm and soaked up some of his warmth while they waited for their order. "I could get used to having you around you know."

"You...not to look a gift horse in the mouth but you do know I'm nearly forty right?" He asked.

"Yup." She nodded. "Tony tried to plan a surprise party for you next month for it but Pepper totally shut that idea down."

"Uh...right."

"Do you know how awesome that woman is? Seriously how many people can get Tony Stark under control within like a sentence? I can wrangle most scientists but he is just a whole different species."

"You wrangle scientists? That's your job description?" He chuckled.

"Not officially but pretty much. Apparently it helps to have someone with less intelligence but more common sense around the labs. I feed and water Jane and put her to bed so that her science makes sense to...you know...people."

"Sounds a bit like parenting."

"Depends on the scientist. Jane is pretty good at getting herself breakfast but then once she starts working that's it, she still gets hungry so I have to be errand girl for food but she'll eat fine, it's just that she doesn't know when to stop and go to bed." She laughed. "Dr Chang is like uber efficient, she only eats at set times when an alert goes off and she only eats certain things too. I don't have to do much for her except occasionally prod her into a bit of fun. Dr Evans is sexist and self important, he thinks I'm his personal slave most of the time when I'm mostly Jane's assistant in the first place. He likes to boss me around and seem important but as long as I get his morning coffee, I can pretty much avoid him with no harm done."

"And you thought you'd add me to your lunch list?" He asked in surprise.

"I like you." She shrugged. "Besides, You're another one that's pretty easy to keep an eye on. If you've forgotten to eat then getting you to eat is easy, I just put something I know you like on your desk and you eat it without even thinking about it."

"You slip food onto my desk?"

"Only for the past four months or so." She rolled her eyes. "You really never noticed me at all did you?"

"Uh...well...I didn't exactly notice much." He replied weakly.

"Hey Doc, you might make your own hours but I have to go to work!" Darcy called from the kitchen counter the next morning. "So if you want coffee or breakfast or whatever, you're out of luck because I have to go."

"What happened?" He blurted, sitting up. "I fell asleep?"

"Yup."

"Sorry, I really didn't...mean to do that." He mused, looking around at Darcy's small open plan apartment to get his bearings.

"Not a problem dude." She shrugged. "I have to get to work so just make sure K-9 is safely shut in here when you leave OK?"

"You're just going to leave me here?" He asked in surprise.

"Something tells me that the genius scientist on Starks and Shields payroll won't be stealing anything here." She snorted.

"If you want water or juice I have that but no tea and if you can find anything in the fridge worth eating for breakfast then go for it but they're pretty empty." She told him.

"Ooo...kay." He agreed awkwardly.

"Knowing you, I'll probably see you floating around the labs later. See ya Doc." She waved.

Being around Darcy was pretty easy after that. He didn't even notice how comfortable he was around her until Tony pointed out how close they now stood whenever they were in the same room.

"I think she's good for you." He said.

"I think Darcy is pretty much good for anyone." Bruce countered.

"See, you like her." Tony accused.

"What's not to like? She's a nice girl." Bruce shrugged. "Doesn't mean I'm good for her."

"Could you for once, just be a little bit selfish? Please?" Tony sighed, before grabbing his phone that had started ringing. "Crap that's Pepper, I was supposed to meet her an hour ago."

As Tony left Darcy entered, Tony gave her a wink as he disappeared into the elevator but Darcy didn't even spare him a glance.

"We have a problem." She announced bluntly, marching into his lab. She certainly had the appearance of a woman on a mission about her.

"We as in everyone or we as in you and me?" He asked her calmly.

"You and me." She clarified. Without further explanation, she tossed something on the table in front of him. He blinked as he took in the small white stick and realised what it was. "Can't have sex my ass!" He tugged off his glasses and cleaned them with his shirt, before looking closer at the pregnancy test glaring up at him with two blue lines on it.

"I...I can't..." He murmured dazedly, lifting the test closer to his face as if he couldn't quite believe it were real. Then abruptly dropped it back on the desk. "You're absolutely certain?"

"Certain that I'm pregnant or certain that it's yours?" She asked sounding a bit offended.

"Well...both I guess." He mumbled.

"Don't make me hit you." She deadpanned.

"Look, if this it right and it...if I got you pregnant then that could be very bad, dangerous even." He explained.

"I'm five days late and you're the only person that I even kissed with tongue in the last five months. I think the only reason I didn't realise I had the next morning, must have been because everything hurt and I felt so crap in general from the super booze, that I wasn't going to be noticing an after sex ache in my ladyparts." She mused. "Oh wait, unless you count the time Nat and I kissed to wind up Barton."

"I think we can rule out kissing as a means of getting pregnant Darcy." He cringed, lowering his face to his hand. "I'm sorry, I honestly...I didn't think it was even possible."

"The sex part or the pregnant part because I'm pretty sure in that big brain of yours you must know that unprotected sex results in babies." She blurted out.

"Both actually. The amount of radiation I was exposed to should have left me infertile. The chances of me getting someone pregnant are about one in two thousand." He explained, lowering himself into his chair. "I also haven't been able to be intimate with anyone since the accident."

"Have you actually tried?" She asked curiously.

"When it first happened I was sort of seeing someone." He offered shyly.

"But that was a long time ago, your control I totally different now." She countered. "And pregnancy test says, yes, you can obviously have sex. I mean, I'm pretty sure if it'd been big green I did the nasty with I would have felt it the next morning...ouch..."

"I've experimented since." He said, flushing and choosing to ignore the thought of the damage the other guy could do to someone in that situation. He glanced up at the woman next to him to find her looking confused and with a sigh offered clarification. "Alone."

"Oh...got it." She nodded. "Really? No jollies at all? Since before the Hulk? First sex in like years and you don't remember it? Harsh."

"Do you remember anything?" He asked quietly.

"Not really, I remember lots of kissing, I remember it was good and that's about it." She admitted. "I honestly think anything that happened once I was no longer standing is just a blank because I remember knocking drink on my dress but I don't remember taking it off."

"I...I think I remember unzipping it." He frowned suddenly. "I think..."

"I doesn't matter. It was like a month ago now, we've managed this far without remembering everything." She shrugged sympathetically.

"Darcy, part of my condition is genetic." He said carefully.

"As in..." Her gaze slipped down to her own abdomen quickly. "Baby Hulks?"

"Well, the gamma radiation is responsible for triggering the other guy but there could still be some side affects." He sighed sadly. "In fact who knows what side affects could come from the radiation alone. It's your decision but...this is dangerous and I don't think you should take the risk."

Awkward silence fell between them for several moments before Darcy spoke.

"I'm not making any decisions until we know more." She said quietly, before turning and leaving as quickly as she had arrived.

It was Tony who found Bruce still sat staring at the pregnancy test in front of him, when he returned nearly an hour later.

"Urm...what is that?" He asked. He hovered closer, able to see the result staring up from the test. "You're pregnant?"

"Tony." Bruce warned.

"Someone isn't happy today." Tony whistled. "Care to fill me in?"

"Darcy is pregnant." He said.

"Well that's going to ruin the happy marriage thing the media is still talking about." Tony commented, leaning casually against one of the desks. "I thought you guys were getting along pretty well."

"Right now I'm not even thinking about the media. She hasn't been with anyone else." He admitted.

"Else? Wait, else as in else apart from you?" Tony blinked. "You and boobs?"

"Apparently." Bruce muttered. "This is a mess."

"Apparently? Wait...this is all from your wild night in Vegas?" He asked.

"Which actually makes this your fault!" Bruce snapped. Tony threw his hands up in a surrendering gesture at the other scientists glare.

"Alright, alright. I said, I'm sorry." He said. "So we have a problem. What do we know?"

"Other than that night, Darcy said she hasn't even kissed another man in months. I do remember kissing her." Bruce offered.

"And you still haven't been able to finish without turning all green?" Tony asked placing his coffee cup onto the desk and moving to the nearest large screen.

"No." Bruce admitted. "Not to mention that I'm infertile."

"Well, apparently not infertile enough." Tony countered. "So assuming that you did get Darcy pregnant, what is she going to do about it?"

"I told her she shouldn't go through with it. She hasn't made her mind up." He replied.

"This could be a one and only shot for you here Bruce. You sure you don't want that?"

"Not if it puts Darcy's life at risk to do it."

"Alright, so if she terminates then she terminates, assuming baby green isn't as bulletproof as his dear old dad. If not, what are the risks?"

"We're looking at three major points. Genetics, the genetic mutation that I inherited could cause issues in any child of mine. Radiation, the amount of radiation could mean deformities or any number of issues." He sighed.

"What's the third?"

"The combination of the two could literally mean another Hulk or worse."

"We can cope with a big Hulk, a baby Hulk is not the worst case scenario here."

"And how would Darcy cope with a baby that can hurt her? Let alone the damage it could do to her if it changed before it was born."

"One step at a time Brucie boy." Tony reassured him. "We start with these points, we brainstorm, research. Darcy is pregnant, we can't change that, that's her decision. So we focus on what we can do."


	5. Chapter 5

Darcy slumped into her chair and picked up Jane's latest notes to type up. She was pregnant. Pregnant. It was one thing to suspect it when she was late but with a positive test she knew for a for fact. It was funny, when she had that positive test in her hand the first thing she had done was storm to Bruce and demand some kind of explanation as if he would some how be able to come up with some magical way of proving her wrong.

Then she had gone down to medical in hopes that somehow the test was wrong. She had taken a second test which was again positive. They told her to come back in a few weeks for a scan. So she went to work.

Now what? She was pregnant. Bruce didn't think she should keep the baby. Part of her was a bit disappointed that he would be so quick to make that decision. They may not truly be man and wife in the more biblical sense of the word...although...now that she thought about it, she supposed they sort of were. Not the point. The point was that even though they weren't all loved up like the media thought they were didn't mean they weren't friends. This baby was his. He was supposed to at least think about it before decided he didn't want it. So did she do what Bruce thought and get rid of it? Or did she go it alone and keep it? Oh God...now that her shock and anger was wearing off she had no clue what to do.

"Darcy, what is it?" Jane called. When the older woman got no response, she glanced over to her assistant. "Darcy? What's wrong?" She got quickly to her feet and darted over to the younger girl. "Darcy breathe! Darcy! I need some help in here!"

Another lab assistant appeared in the doorway.

"I'll go get help." He assured Jane before darting up the hallway.

"Shall I alert Dr Banner that his wife is unwell?" Jarvis asked.

"Oh! Yes, Bruce should probably know." Jane agreed. "Jarvis can you do a scan on Darcy to find out what is wrong?"

"I am unable to do so in your current location. There is a camera in the doorway that would better allow me to assist your request." The A.I. responded politely.

"OK, doorway, come on Darcy let's just move a bit further this way." She suggested, trying to hoist Darcy up from the floor where she had somehow collapsed from her seat. "Darcy breathe!"

"What happened?!" Bruce demanded jogging into the room.

"I think she's choking." Jane panicked. "She was fine and now she's struggling to breathe."

"Move out the way." He said, approaching the women on the ground. "Hey Darcy, can you speak at all?" He didn't get a response. He reached out to feel her neck and throat. "I don't think she's choking, it looks like an anxiety attack."

"but she can't breathe!" Jane insisted.

Bruce focused on the dark haired woman in front of him. He reached for her face and drew her head up to look at him.

"Darcy, I need you to look at me, can you do that? Just focus on me." He told her. He took one of her hands in his and pressed it firmly against his chest. "I need you to breathe out. Can you do that? Copy me. Just let one big breathe out. Good. Just keep copying me, see if you can match my breathing."

"Oh thank God." Jane sighed, dropping into the nearest chair. "Darcy you scared the shit outta me."

"I'm fine." Darcy blurted breathlessly, flinching backwards.

"Wait, not yet." He said soothingly. He took her other hand and pressed it against her chest, feeling her rapid heartbeat. "Just wait until you've calmed down. We don't want you going straight back to not breathing.". He was relieved when she nodded, no longer looking in his eyes but just staring at their hands on his chest. She focused on how his chest moved in and out until she saw him nod in her peripheral vision.

"Are you alright now?" He asked.

"Yeah." She croaked out. "Sorry, I have no idea what happened there. Totally embarrassing."

"You had an anxiety attack." He offered. "I'm an expert in keeping calm."

"Thanks." She said quietly, she getting to her feet and brushing herself off. Bruce was one of the last people she wanted to be around right now.

"Are you alright?" He asked, getting to his feet also and eying her carefully up and down.

"Nothing but pride hurting here." She replied breezily. "I need to talk to Jane, I haven't told her yet or anyone actually."

"Oh, right...I'll um speak to you later then?" He looked reluctant to leave just yet and Darcy gave him a small wave.

"Yeah, I'm good. Promise. Get back to work Doc."

The moment he was gone Darcy found herself crushed in Jane's arms.

"Don't ever, ever scare me like that again!" She snapped.

"In my defence I was scared." Darcy replied.

"What on earth for? Darcy what is going on?"

"You know how I never did remember everything that happened that night in Vegas?" Darcy asked. "Turns out that includes having babymaking sex with Bruce." She watched the other woman freeze. "Yeah you hear that right. Baby. I am pregnant, with a baby. Well...a baby or a baby Hulk, who knows."

"Are we happy about this or...are we sad?" Jane asked quietly.

"We're undecided. I'm undecided. Bruce doesn't want it."

"Oh Darcy...I'm sure that's not true."

"He told me I should get rid of it." Darcy countered. "I think I need to get out of the labs for the rest of the day."

"Are you sure?" Jane asked.

"Yeah, I think I just need to try and relax and clear my head." Darcy nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Bruce had hoped to catch Darcy later that day to talk to her again. He didn't see are at all. Then he didn't see her in any of the common rooms around dinner time either.

"Jarvis where's Darcy?" He asked aloud.

"Mrs Banner is currently in her suite." The A.I. replied.

o;""Thanks Jarvis."

"Decided that this was a subject he didn't want to leave undiscussed and that he also wanted to check on her after her panic attack earlier he headed to her room. He knocked on the door and waited. No answer.

"Darcy?" Bruce called knocking on the door again. "I know you're in there I can hear you. We need to talk about this."

The door was suddenly flung open and his hand hung in mid air where it had been pressed against wood previously.

"We talked, you said you didn't want the baby but the decision is mine. I got it." She said bluntly. "This is me deciding."

"What did you decide?" He asked in surprise.

"I didn't decide yet." She huffed rolling her eyes. "Me locking myself away to sulk and think for five minutes is my decision process. A decision process which no longer includes you."

"Wait, what?" He blinked. "It's your choice but it still sort of does include me."

"You already threw in your opinion." She snapped, moving to close the door but his hand swept forward and stopped the door before it even got halfway.

"That doesn't mean I'm just going to leave you to it Darcy, in case you're forgetting you're legally my wife." He said insistently.

"Really? You think that's going to win you brownie points here?" She raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"How about the fact we're supposed to be at least friends?" He offered with a sigh. "I just...this is big, either way there could be complications so I wanted to talk about it...with you."

"I don't want to know about the complications yet." She admitted turning and walking into her living room, leaving him stood in the open doorway. He assumed that was as close to an invitation as he was going to get and stepped inside. He closed the door behind him before leaning back against it. "The complications aren't important to me. The only question that is important to me is whether or not I keep this baby. Can I handle a baby by myself? Can I live with myself if I don't have this baby?"

"Darcy the risks are-"

"No! I don't want to hear any of your science risks. Screw that!" She snapped. "I come from a small God-fearing town and most of the crap I was raised with, I don't worry about too much but this...this part of me agrees with. Killing a baby, before it even has a chance is wrong. I'm not saying that no one should ever get an abortion but if they do they need a damn good reason!"

"Like the fact the baby could turn into a monster and kill you?" He hissed, moving closer.

"I've met the big guy Bruce, twice. He wasn't quite so out of control as you seem to think." She said quietly. "It wouldn't matter if he was a little Hulk to me, that stuff isn't important. I got drunk, I wasn't on birth control and apparently I had sex." She saw him open his mouth and raised a hand to stop him. "You can blame yourself all you like this is my thoughts we're talking about here. In my head, I took those actions and it resulted in this. My decision isn't based on what is best for me, it's what is best for the baby. Like can I handle being a lone parent, or a parent at all?"

"You're not alone Darcy. You have me and all of us here." He pointed out, watching as she paced the room.

"You don't want a baby."

"I...Darcy it's not that I wouldn't want a baby. I don't want a baby at the expense of your health. If I weren't who I am then of course I would want children." He said, approaching her slowly.

"The solution would be easier if it weren't a Hulk baby obviously, I could have the baby and give it to some perfect couple to give him the life he deserves. But I can't do that if he isn't normal. I don't want my baby to end up an experiment so either I keep him or I end it now. I just..." He watched as her eyes widen in horror and her hand covered her mouth. "Shit."

"What?" He asked, reading for her arm in concern. Was she about to have another panic attack.

"My baby...he's already my baby..." She said numbly.

"If you want it." He said softly, pulling her into a hug as she began to sob. He wanted to tell her that he'd never forgive himself for putting her in this situation. He wanted to ask her to promise that if they ran some tests and the baby was likely to hurt her, she wouldn't go through with it. He didn't say those things. Darcy didn't want to hear them right now and she was scared. He knew Darcy well enough by now, to know that if further down the line it there came a choice between her and the baby, she would choose the baby. Darcy liked to put on a show of being tough and joking and outspoken but she was one of the biggest hearted people he knew.

"I can't get rid of this baby Bruce." She whispered quietly. "I'm sorry."

"Don't ever be sorry for that." He told her firmly. "We'll figure this out. It'll be fine."


	6. Chapter 6

Darcy glanced towards the desk at the beeping of Jane's phone curiously. Jane didn't often get actual text messages. Thor found cell phones too breakable and when he was on world he was rarely far from his lady love anyway. Then most of the other people that would text Jane were usually in the same building and could just get Jarvis to relay a message.

"Jane you're beeping." She called across the lab.

"Who is it from?" Her boss called back.

"Pepper." Darcy replied with a frown. "Pepper as in Potts? Why is Pepper Potts texting you?"

There was a sudden thud as Jane presumably hit something in her sudden haste to head in Darcy's direction.

"Is it Saturday today?" The older woman asked, scrambling to take the phone from Darcy.

"Yeah, why?"

"I have a thing." Jane replied quickly, her fingers tapping out a reply on her cell.

"You have a thing?" Darcy raised an eyebrow sceptically. "On Saturdays? With Pepper Potts?"

"Every other Saturday." Jane replied.

"Where are you going?"

"I have a thing." Jane huffed as if that was obvious and Darcy was the one being weird. "Fine, you can come with me, as long as you can keep quiet about it."

Darcy agreed and quickly follows Jane out of the labs. Her curiosity piques when they go down in the elevator, like all the way down below ground level.

"Why are we in the car park?"

"We're crossing the car park to the other elevator."

"What's wrong with this one?"

"This one doesn't go where we need to go." Jane rolled her eyes as they stepped into the second elevator and went down. "Look, we don't want everyone down here, you'll understand when you see."

Darcy's eyes widen in surprise and disbelief as they enter a viewing box and she realises exactly what they're watching.

The Avengers are below them, training. Most of them half naked. Thor fought Steve both men in only pants. It was easy to see that Thor was stronger than Steve physically, but it was also obviously that Steve was slightly smaller and faster. Even if Thor was more likely to win, it was an amazing thing to watch.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me about this sooner." Darcy muttered, elbowing the other woman.

"You've got a big mouth." Jane replied.

"Pot kettle." She snorted.

"What she means is we made a girlfriends only rule." Another voice said. Darcy's head snapped in the direction of the red head, sat on a chair immaculately dressed for a business meeting, casually watching the half naked beautiful people below them.

"Miss Potts." Darcy greeted politely, before turned back on Jane. "I'm still annoyed you left me out. I'm not just anyone, I'm technically married to an Avenger."

"But you weren't dating him." Pepper pointed out.

"Didn't stop him from getting me pregnant." Darcy muttered.

"Pregnant?!" Pepper exclaimed with a wide smile. "Congratulations! I didn't realise you two had decided to give things a go for real."

"We didn't. I just...I feel stupid." Darcy sighed, looking out at Steve Rogers flinging a test dummy at Thor. "I should've got a morning after pill or something anyway but Bruce said he couldn't physically have sex without turning into the Hulk and since the room wasn't destroyed, he couldn't have Hulked out. I took his word for it and it turns out he must be able to."

"You still don't remember." Pepper patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

"All this eye candy is cheering me up though." Darcy commented. "Does anyone else suddenly have the urge to lick Captain America's stomach?" Both other women made noises of agreement as they watched the scene below.

"I want to know how Natasha gets her thighs to be so toned without them being big." Pepper sighed.

"Pfft, I'd like to say I want to know how Natasha has a figure like that instead of mine but I'm pretty sure the answer is that she works out and does an active job while I mainly twirl around in an office chair or sit at home watching Netflix and eating pizza." Darcy grinned. A movement to the right of where they were looking caught Darcy's attention and she gaped in surprise as Bruce entered the room below and sat on the padded floor in a pair of loose workout pants. "Um...what is he doing? Why isn't he Hulking out or something?"

She felt herself flush, a little embarrassed at seeing the mild mannered and shy scientist half naked but she found herself staring anyway. He sat looking completely calm and comfortable half naked, totally unaffected by the chaos the other end of the room.

"He comes in to do his yoga." Jane explained.

"Um...why is he doing yoga in the same room as those guys doing...that? Surely it'd be easier somewhere...else?" She asked, gesturing out of the glass.

"That's the point." Pepper explained. "He's trying to focus on calm in all situations. If he can be around all that violence and noise and still keep his cool then he believes his control will be as good as it's ever going to get."

"Makes sense I guess..." Darcy nodded. "But what if the team needs the Hulk? What if the world needs the Hulk to save it? Wouldn't it be better to have a controlled Hulk rather than one so excited to finally be let out that he smashes everything in sight?"

"You think the Hulk can be controlled?" Jane blinked in surprise.

"Hey people and animals can learn stuff, why not the Hulk?" She asked. "He didn't smash any of the Avengers in New York. He obviously knew who was on his team because he saved Tony. So he has at least some control. They should be working on getting to know the Hulk not trying to make him disappear."

"Interesting theory, I concur." a voice came from behind them. A sweaty Tony Stark moved to greet Pepper with a brief kiss. "The Hulk is part of Bruce, the worst parts with none of the good...plus you know huge, bulletproof and green."

"Like a schizophrenic?" Darcy asked.

"but green." Tony nodded.

"So you agree, keeping the Hulk shut away is a mistake?" She asked him.

"Definitely. I think he should be letting the big guy out down there to smash around with Thor. Thor can take it, for a little while at least. Steve and I can take a little to take some of the heat off him if we need to but can't actually stand much of a fight with him." Tony shrugged.

"So why don't you guys do that?"

"Because Thor is the only other person until now that agree with me." He explained.

"I just...if it wasn't for the Hulk, so many more people would have died in this very city. You might have died. I just can't see how someone that did that can be just a complete rage monster. I've seen him in action twice and he always seemed aware of who was on his side." She said eying Bruce's movements as he moved into an almost handstand kind of pose. "He's dangerous sure...but not a complete demon of destruction or something."

"Well, he thinks I'm a bit of a risk taker with no forethought for my own or other people's safety, so he won't listen to me. He thinks Thor's opinion is somewhat biased because Thor is far stronger than any of us humans and he doesn't truly understand how easily the Hulk could kill loads of people like bugs, so he won't listen to him." He mused. "Maybe he'll listen to you."

"I'm a lab assistant, with a degree in political science. Why would he listen to me? I'm not a genius."

"Exactly." He grinned. "You are completely ordinary. One ordinary, young woman who doesn't believe that the Hulk is just a monster. If you can think that, then maybe you can convince him that other people feel that way too."

"I'm not exactly unbiased though am I?"

"But you have a very good reason not to want to be around someone dangerous. Would you trust the Hulk to save you?" He asked, eying her challengingly.

"Yes." She replied slowly.

"You need to be sure." He prodded at her hesitant answer.

"I trust that the Hulk would never deliberately hurt me." She offered honestly.

"Alright, then let's make a plan." He beamed.

"Maybe after you have a shower." Pepper suggested.

Four weeks later

Darcy took a deep breath and pushed the large button on the access panel. The heavy metal door slide open and she forced herself to march confidently into the training room. She didn't even know if Tony had warned any of the others what she was going to be doing but was thankful when there wasn't any immediate fireworks. Heading over to where Bruce sat, she calmly took a seat next to him, leaving about a metre of space between them.

"What are you doing?" He asked, glancing sideways at the woman now sat copying his pose next to him.

"Um duh, I'm practicing yoga."

"It's not really safe for you to-"

"Dude, it's yoga, not some jet lee crazy martial arts stuff." She cut him off. She shifted to the next pose, he remained frozen where he was. "Tony said it would be OK."

"Which was reckless." Bruce snapped, glaring towards the man in question. "Look at what is going on over there! What if you got hurt in the crossfire?"

"Firstly, they are all the way over there. Secondly, two of them are trained Agents that are aware of pretty much every possible outcome before they so much as clip a toenail. Thirdly, if something did go wrong, I have you right here to protect me." She reasoned. "I don't bite."

"The other guy might."

"He does seem the territorial type doesn't he." She mused, shifting again.

"That's not..." He shook his head, there was no point even trying to reason with Darcy. She would out maneuver him in nearly every argument. He was logic and reason, she thought outside the box and it showed whenever she managed to win a debate. "In your condition I really think you should be trying to be safe." It was a cheap shot but it would be worth it if it worked.

"Exercise is still important during pregnancy. I haven't done yoga in about two years but it will probably be great at helping me relax and destress." She shrugged, shifting again. Giving up the battle, Bruce simply continued his routine, trying very hard to ignore the woman to his left.

When she stopped and simply stretched out flat on the floor to relax, he stopped also.

"I forgot what this felt like." She sighed. "Feeling like I am wide awake and able to tackle the day but relaxed enough to just fall asleep at the same time."

"I wouldn't advise sleeping here." He chuckled. He had to admit, it hadn't really interrupted his routine at all to have her following along beside him.

"Yeah, I'll get up in a minute." She waved him off. "Then I'm going to get something to eat, I'm starving."

"Tony suggested this didn't he?" Bruce asked.

"Yes and no." She sat up and took his offered hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet. "I said I thought you focusing on suppressing the big guy around the team was stupid and that you should be letting the other guy smash around with Thor. Tony agreed. He said you wouldn't listen to him and wanted me to try."

"And that ended with you doing yoga how?"

"I thought you'd be less likely to run away." She shrugged. "Figured I'd ease you into my suggestion."

"The suggestion being?"

"Yoga is fine, I'm all for you relaxing and everything but I also think you need to let the other guy out deliberately. You know he has at least enough control to know who is on his team. So let him get to know them and work with them. Better in a controlled practice environment then things going wrong in a crisis situation." She explained. "If you want, I'll do yoga with you a couple of times a week, but during this session, every other week, I think the other guy should be over there with them."

"If. And I mean a big if." He paused, picking up his water bottle and heading towards the exit. "If I were to even consider attempting to let the other guy out in here to train with the others you would not be here. You wouldn't even be up there." He gestured to the viewing box. "If I even consider this crazy idea you and Tony have then you cannot be anywhere even close to this training area at the time."

"I can sacrifice eye candy sessions if it's for the good of the world." She nodded dutifully.

"What?" He mouthed silently in confusion, the metal door closing behind them.

"I've been up there the past two sessions staring at you lot down here half naked." She grinned. "So much eye candy."

"I think I'm sorry I asked." He cringed.

"Uh dude you should be flaunting this." She replied, gesturing to his bare top half. "It still baffles me that you and Tony are scientists and yet..." Again she gestured to his body. "Plus it has been unanimously agree that every woman ever wants to lick Steve's abs."

"I'm fairly certain you haven't lined every woman ever up in that little viewing room and asked them." He murmured.

"Is it wrong that I also want to lick Natasha's stomach?" Darcy asked, as she headed to the female changing area, leaving a bemused Bruce Banner behind.


	7. Chapter 7

Darcy sighed and glanced towards the closed door again, her appointment was for ten minutes ago. At least she didn't have to worry about the same expenses or baby doctor hunting that other moms-to-be had to worry about she supposed.

Technically the routine pregnancy related medical issues weren't covered by Stark Industries or the Avengers Initiative, just maternity pay and paid leave days to attend appointments if necessary. However, since her baby was a Hulk baby, they decided that only their in house medical team would be allowed to monitor her pregnancy for both privacy and safety. After all nothing about the Hulk managing to get her pregnant was exactly routine. Bruce himself was actually in charge of running some tests, which Darcy wasn't thrilled about but they had negotiated to placate his concerns for her safety.

"Darcy? I thought you'd be done by now." Bruce's familiar voice called as he came down the corridor. "I was coming to collect the blood samples."

"Yeah well I haven't even been in yet, so you're in for a wait." She replied, gesturing to the seat opposite her.

"I-"

"Darcy Lewis?" A new voice called from the now open door.

"That's me." She said unnecessarily, standing and heading to meet the woman.

"And Dr Banner, are you joining us?" The woman asked. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment looking uncertain.

"Sure, why not, you're not stripping me of all my clothes and dignity today right?" Darcy asked the woman.

"No Darcy, not today. It says here that when you saw Dr Kline to confirm the pregnancy he did a pelvic exam and it was all normal. So unless we have reason to suspect otherwise, we won't need to do another until the very end." She said politely, holding the door for Darcy to enter, a reluctant Bruce following behind.

"Will you stop looking like you're about to be executed?" Darcy huffed, rolling her eyes at Bruce perched in the chair beside her. "You put the baby in there, you can at least keep up to date about it. After all, won't knowing all the details help you researching what kind of a hybrid baby he or she is?"

"Right, Darcy, I take it you have concerns about the baby?" Dr Bennett asked, taking a seat herself.

"I mean it wasn't planned but I'm not getting rid of it if that's what you mean." Darcy replied.

"Not at all, I thought you might have concerns due to Bruce's condition."

"Not really. A baby is a baby. If it's a baby Hulk then it's still half me so...I'm not really worried until we find a reason to be worried. Doc here is worried." She stuck her thumb in Bruce's direction but he said nothing.

"Well, his concerns aren't exactly unfounded. It's new territory for all of us. We aren't going to panic until we have reason to, so for the moment we're going to do some standard tests and then some extras." She explained. "First things first, how have you been feeling? Any symptoms? Nausea? Tenderness?"

"Um...not really any nausea. My boobs are about the same as when I get my period so that's not really a problem. I've been starting to get more tired though." She reeled off, focusing on the woman in front of her rather than the man to her right, if for no other reason that to save herself embarrassment.

"That's fine. You might find yourself needing a little bit more food or sleep. Your body needs the extra energy to help grow your baby. Now when I say more food, most people feel like the phrase eating for two means eating twice as much but really you only need around an extra five to six hundred calories. Take a nap during the day if you need one or have some early nights. If you've started taking your vitamins, that should also help." The doctor explained. "So you're about eleven weeks correct? What we're going to do is try and get a look at what's going on in here with a scan, hopefully we'll get a good visual which will give us a due date. After that we will take some blood tests, we take blood samples during all pregnancies to check for things like iron levels and immunities but Dr Banner here also wants some samples to check that nothing from his condition is affecting you via the baby. He'll do this periodically throughout. So if you could just hop up on the cot over there we can get a look at your baby."

Darcy stood and did as instructed although in her mind she was grumbling about the term hop. The cot was high and Darcy wasn't exactly blessed by the height fairy, there was no just hopping onto the cot. Instead it was more of an undignified scramble up onto the small bed.

"Dr Banner, you're going to want to be over here." Dr Bennett called across the room, moving a couple of things around, including a screen into place facing away from Darcy to start with. "Right, let me tuck this here to protect your clothing a bit. I'm just going to try and get a good picture for you and then I'll turn it around for you to get a look." Bruce awkwardly hovered by Darcy's head, eying the exposed skin curiously.

"Maybe I should get you to take pictures for my before shot." Darcy commented, noticing his gaze. "I'm pretty sure my stomach is never going to look this good ever again."

"I was just thinking, you can't even tell." He said.

"Well that looks nice and normal." The woman announced, "Let me just get a couple of measurements here and...OK." She turned the screen and Darcy stopped breathing. It wasn't the clearest shot, she couldn't pick out every feature but it was clearly a baby. Her baby.

"Going by the dates you gave us, these measurements add up nearly spot on. There's always going to be an error margin as every baby is different but your baby is exactly as he or she should be right now. You can see the heartbeat fluttering away there and he's having a nice little wriggle look."

"He?" Darcy asked.

"Or she, it's too early to tell. I just often say he or baby." The older woman explained. "If you do want to know the sex we can let you know later on. Sometimes we can tell as early as thirteen or fourteen weeks but we tend to wait until closer to the midway mark to confirm the gender when it's much clearer. I'll print you off a couple of pictures to take away and give you a minute."

Darcy watched as the little baby like shape stretched out it's legs and seemed to kick both of them, she let out a delighted laugh.

"I can't believe I can't feel that." She said.

"You will, later on." Bruce replied from beside her. She glanced up at him, almost having forgotten that he was there. She had become pretty comfortable in his presence and had been so wrapped up in the excitement of seeing their baby for the first time. He looked as enthralled as she felt. He looked away from the scan and ducked his head to press a brief kiss into her hair. "Thank you."

"This is pretty incredible huh." She whispered back. For a few moments, it didn't matter how it happened, how they got married or what kind of relationship they had. For a few moments they were two new parents, both just staring at their baby for the first time and enjoying the moment.

Later that week

A few clicks told Jane that the reactor was firmly locked into place. She moved back behind the safety screen and raised her arm to signal Darcy.

"OK, test seven active." Jane announced, turning her power switch on. "Please tell me you're recording this."

"I'm not stupid." Darcy muttered, double checking the cameras anyway.

"Signs of quantum field activity..." Jane spoke aloud. "Darcy! Look!" Sure enough the very air in the centre of Jane's device seemed to be moving and twisting. Darcy frowned as the machine next to Jane shook.

"Jane, is it supposed to do that?" She asked.

"No!"

"Shut it down!" Darcy shouted. "Shut it down and get out of there."

"I'm trying! It's the arc reactor energy, it's not shutting off!" Jane shouted, backing away from the machine. She ran over to Darcy, dragging Darcy with her to the lab exit. "Stand by the door and don't let anyone in here, I'm going to shut off the power to whole floor."

Darcy did as Jane said and hovered anxiously in the exit as Jane charged down the corridor shouting.

"Hit the emergency shut off!" She shouted. "Potential code six!"

Jane froze in horror as she heard a massive bang that shook the floor. As people started running from their labs to avoid lock downs and to assess the situation she gradually snapped out of it.

"Darcy!" Jane called desperately into the cloud of dust that engulfed the lab. A grunt was the first response. A loud, gravely grunt.

"Darcy?!" She called again, taking a cautious step backwards.

As the dust started to clear from the automated ventilation system a very large figure became noticeable.

"Stand back Foster." None other than Tony Stark said as security began to fill the floor.

"But I need to find Darcy!" She protested, trying to look around the security.

"What the hell?" Darcy groaned. She winced at the tight squeezing feeling. Was she being crushed? She tried to look around and everything was dusty and fuzzy. Everything sounded funny too, she couldn't hear things properly except for a beeping sound that actually sounded really far away. The crushing feeling loosened and she realised it was warm. It was a person.

"Darcy hurt?"

Darcy gaped up at the huge green figure crouched over her, his arms around her protectively. The Hulk was there, right there...acting like a human shield. As he stood bits of...well lab, rolled off of his back and shoulders. He shook himself off with a grunt and looked at her again. Darcy tried to remember what had happened. Jane had run to shut off the power, Bruce and Tony had come running to the lab, having been alerted to a reactor issue then...boom.

She glanced at the smashed glass everywhere. Luckily she hadn't been actually in the lab when it had happened and she was even more grateful that Jane was no longer stood behind only the first protection screen. The protection screen that was in pieces flung across the entire lab. In fact part of the device itself was wedged into the second protective glass screen that Darcy had been behind before Jane dragged her from the room. The part of the device would have gone straight through Jane. Darcy felt cold just thinking about it. She glanced at her arms, they didn't look cold but they felt cold.

Then there were people filling the room. The Hulk was roaring and she was being escorted to medical by security personnel in body armour. It all happened so quickly that she barely had a chance to process what was even happening until she was sat on a bed being looked over.

It was two hours later that Darcy was released after a thorough check up and knowing that Jane's lab was currently being cleaned up and repaired, she instead headed for Bruce's lab. He wasn't there but she pretty much made herself at home on the couch in the office for a moment. She wanted to see him but she didn't know where he was and if he was still the Hulk...she wasn't sure if she was ready to face the Hulk, considering she had promised Bruce she wouldn't be anywhere near the other guy on several occasions. She felt odd though, she felt like she should be thanking the other guy, he protected her earlier after all. Regardless of her indecision on the Hulk, she wanted to know that Bruce was alright and she was certain that he would want to know that she was fine.

It was another hour before Darcy gave up waiting in the lab and headed up to the communal lounge room. Jarvis would only tell her that Bruce had privacy protocols activated and couldn't tell her anything until he removed them. She didn't want to be alone in her room, so instead she put the TV on in the lounge and hoped that someone would come and join her.

Bruce had asked after Darcy's condition immediately after returning to himself but it had taken him a while to fully regain control of himself. The Hulk have been extremely angry. Darcy being removed from his sight had set him off and he had lashed out at the security personnel, thankfully there had been no injuries. When he finally lowered his privacy protocols, Jarvis had informed him that Darcy had been asking after him. After getting her location from the A.I. he decided that it would probably help him and the other guy to see with their own eyes that she was in one piece. The relief that hit him when he saw her curled up on the couch with a blanket seeped through his every aching muscle.

"Hey, you look as tired as I feel." Darcy commented, noticing his presence.

"Why aren't you in bed? You should be in bed." He frowned, glancing at his watch to confirm the time. "I thought after today especially you'd need an early night."

"I was worried. I didn't really feel like sitting alone in my room when I didn't know if you were OK." She told him. Passing him a warm mug. "It's hot chocolate."

"Thanks."

"You should get some rest too."

"The other guy is still sort of around." He tapped his head. "Makes it hard to sleep. I just wanted to see for myself that you were alright, I thought it might help."

"Wanna build a nest and watch Netflix?" She asked him.

"Do I want to what?" He raised his brows in confusion.

Darcy shoved all the large cushions off of the couch including the big seat cushions. Then she dragged the blankets from the back of the couch to the floor also and gestured to it in a ta-da sort of motion. "Nest. We sit, lie, sprawl on the heap of cushions and get Jarvis to queue up cheesey old films."

"Sure, that sounds good actually." He agreed, not bothering to protest as she tugged him down to the floor beside her and curled into his side. He found it did actually seem to soothe the monster in him to have her close by and safe.

Darcy smiled to herself as she heard a light sore only a short while later. She couldn't turn properly to see the man now spooned behind her but he had fallen asleep almost immediately after curling under the blankets on the floor with her. She turned the volume down and let herself sink back into his warmth. It was nice, feeling warm and safe and cosy with someone. She let her own eyes close and decided that if they were both comfortable, this was as good a place as any to sleep.


End file.
